Australia's second most populous state, Victoria, will go into a five-day lockdown to combat an outbreak of Covid-19, Premier Daniel Andrews has said.
"You only get one chance to go hard and go fast. If you wait, if you hesitate, if you doubt, then you will always be looking back wishing you had done more earlier," he told a news conference.
The state had recorded 18 new infections since an outbreak of the highly-contagious Delta variant began in recent days, Mr Andrews added.
The announcement comes after a team of furniture movers from neighbouring New South Wales travelled through Victoria state while infectious.
Dozens of venues in Melbourne including a shopping centre, two public transport routes and a sporting club have been listed as virus-exposed locations, adding pressure on authorities to tighten restrictions.
Yesterday, mandatory mask rules indoors were reintroduced for Victoria's more than six million residents after the state recorded 10 new cases.
Two additional cases were reported in Victoria today. Both people were spectators at an Australian Football League game held in Melbourne's main sports stadium, the MCG, last weekend.
In South Australia, authorities have identified a third venue visited by the workers, while two regional towns in New South Wales, including one near the border with Victoria and about 500kms southwest of Sydney, were on alert after the team stopped at service stations.
Meanwhile, Sydney has reported a slowdown in new Covid-19 cases.
But New South Wales state Premier Gladys Berejiklian said the numbers in the city would need to drop significantly for the city of five million to leave lockdown, given 28 out of the 65 new infections reported were people who were infectious while still active in the community.
"Whilst the case numbers are bouncing around, we are seeing a stabilisation. They are not growing exponentially," she said.
Ms Berejiklian described the new case numbers as a "welcome drop", but warned infections could rise due to the growing number of people with the Delta strain moving around in the community, particularly in Sydney's south-west.
New South Wales officials said out of the more than 900 people who have been infected during the latest outbreak, 73 have been moved to hospital, with 19 people in intensive care.
Two deaths have been reported, the first for the country this year.
Sydney's lockdown started on 26 June and will remain in place until at least 30 July.
Three more Thai islands open to vaccinated travellers
Three more Thai islands have opened to vaccinated foreign tourists despite a nationwide surge in Covid-19 cases propelled by the Delta variant.
The islands - Koh Samui, Koh Tao and Koh Phangan - welcomed visitors as part of the kingdom's push to revive its battered tourism industry.
Thailand launched its "sandbox" scheme on 1 July, allowing vaccinated travellers to visit Phuket island.
Tourists do not have to quarantine in a hotel but can not leave Phuket for two weeks.
Under today's expansion, tourists must stay at an approved hotel on Samui for a week and can leave their accommodation on day four.
They will have to produce a negative Covid-19 test before being allowed to venture to Tao or Phangan after their first week.
The rest of the country is struggling to rein in infections from the Delta variant, which authorities say now makes up nearly 80% of its caseload.
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